Putting Safety FiRsT

The drive to reduce radiation dose and improve overall safety motivated R.T.s to apply for a grant on behalf of their hospitals.

Medical imaging and radiation therapy professionals are passionate about patient safety, and a key part of that is ensuring R.T.s and their health care teams safely perform patient examinations.

That’s why Toshiba America Medical Systems partnered with the ASRT Foundation to create the Safety FiRsT™ program.

“Safety goes beyond lowering radiation dose; it is an encompassing concept that requires constant refinement, guidance and expertise,” said Satrajit Misra, vice president of marketing at Toshiba. “Developing this new grant program helps technologists and their institutions to establish programs that improve individual and population-wide care.”

The $7,000 grants support each winning facility’s plan to improve or implement a safety initiative that would benefit its medical imaging technologists or radiation therapists. ASRT members submitted applications on behalf of their facilities, outlining specific safety concerns and how the grant would address those concerns and provide a safer work environment.

The 2015 recipients of the Safety FiRsT™ grants are Memorial Hospital of Converse County in Douglas, Wyoming, and Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center in Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Memorial Hospital serves east central Wyoming. The 25-bed critical-access hospital was established in 1942. In 2014, it was on a list of the top 100 critical-access hospitals in the United States. In November, Press Ganey awarded the hospital the Guardians of Excellence Award for maintaining a 99% outpatient surgery patient satisfaction score for eight quarters.

Memorial Hospital is the only hospital in Wyoming to have a single-site da Vinci surgical robot, and one of two hospitals in Wyoming with a 320-slice computed tomography unit. The hospital serves a large geographic area in a rural community and is the only critical-access facility in the state with two general surgeons, two OB/GYNs, two podiatrists, two orthopedic surgeons, two internists and two radiologists on staff.

Robbin Romberg, B.S., R.T.(R)(CT), was part of the team of technologists who applied for the grant on behalf of Memorial Hospital. He and the other technologists at the facility diligently work to help staff members understand and practice the principles of ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable), Robbin said.

“We push radiation safety to everyone, all the time,” he said. “The fact that radiation can’t be seen, tasted, felt or heard can lead people to become complacent in their safety habits.”

The staff implemented a rotation system in the operating room to reduce the amount of exposure for medical imaging technologists, and holds educational meetings to help physicians and clinicians develop better radiation safety habits. The Safety FiRsT grant will help them advance their safety practices.

The grant will go toward the purchase of a RaySafe i2 system, which provides real-time monitoring of ionizing radiation that staff members are exposed to during long and intensive procedures in the operating room. Monitoring is done through personal electronic dosimeters worn in the operating room.

A monitor measures dose levels in real time with immediate feedback. It uses a color-coded system that starts with green, then moves to yellow and, finally, red. The system warns the wearer when the dose reaches a certain level so he or she can turn off the fluoroscopy machine or get away from it, if possible.

“I loved the RaySafe idea because you can actually visualize the dose you and your colleagues are receiving as you are receiving it,” Robbin said. “That will help change behaviors and complacency when it comes to following radiation safety protocols. If the staff can see the dose they are getting, they will better follow the guidelines that are in place to keep them safe.”

Caroline Hanford, R.T.(R)(M)(CT), applied for Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center’s winning grant.

This 16-bed critical-access hospital, with a 37-bed attached skilled nursing facility, is located in a remote Minnesota tourist destination along Lake Superior near the Canadian border. It offers radiology, computed tomography and mammography services and conducts the bulk of its medical imaging in the emergency department.

Established in 1954, the hospital serves a year-round population of 6,000, which grows to nearly 20,000 during the high tourist season. The staff frequently sees injuries from hiking, skiing and other recreational activities.

While the hospital maintains the basic necessities for radiation protection for staff and patients, it is missing a few items, which the grant will pay for: an x-ray imaging chair and an EZ Matt. Both pieces of equipment will help the technologists transfer and position patients safely for examinations.

“We have a small staff, and we provide a great deal of support for the emergency room, particularly after normal business hours when there is only one technologist on call and few people to help with moving patients,” Caroline said.

In an emergency situation, it’s important to be able to quickly and safely transfer patients from carts or beds to the x-ray table or CT gantry, she said. That’s where the addition of an EZ Matt, a device that helps hospital staff move prone patients, would be beneficial.

The x-ray imaging chair would be useful for handling routine imaging examinations of elderly and very large patients, Caroline noted. The chair will help staff “provide a quality image for these patients without worrying about their risk of falling.” It also will help prevent the need for additional assistance when moving or positioning patients.

The goal, Caroline said, is to reduce discomfort for patients and decrease the likelihood of injury to the technologists or other staff.

The grant recipient facilities have shown a commitment to providing the best patient care and protecting the health of their staff members. All of the facilities that submitted applications for the program are making great strides in creating the safest working environments possible for their employees, which is a goal that is shared by Toshiba Medical Systems and the ASRT Foundation. The Foundation is in talks with Toshiba to determine if the grant will be offered again.